2019 Pacific Northwest Library Association Conference

Disciplinary Learning Communities can learn a lot about the library through a workshop on critical thinking in their discipline. Starting with the appropriate infographic (focusing on prototypes for engineering, for example), librarians can help students brainstorm about critical thinking in their major, in their academic planning for four years, and then lead students to brainstorm about how their discipline would think through researching a problem. In the end, students think about thinking, but are introduced to the disciplinary resources that will serve them in their college and professional career. Critical thinking skills are highly regarded by future employers, sadly lacking in many of students, and appealing to the leaders of learning communities, more so than another library session might seem. Critical thinking demands engagement, and students working in small groups make connections while they reckon on how their specific field thinks through researching a problem. Librarians walk away knowing they helped students with metacognition while helping them understand they have a disciplinary database, specific reference tools, writing style guides, and librarians who want to intentionally connect their disciplinary needs to the tools in the library that will serve them.  

Understand importance of critical thinking from employers' perspective.
Increase awareness of students' (lack of) critical thinking skills, as is evidenced in the research.
See one possible model of connecting critical thinking to academic planning and disciplinary library research.